Aim to Be Awesome, Not Perfect

So in the midst of all the #socialdistancing, my graduate school classes continue.  Actually, it has been a welcome break to have something to focus on.  This week's discussion board topic - ownership of an e-Portfolio.  When I became a Google Trainer, someone I met said to create any training materials in my personal Google account, not my school (work) account.  When I asked why, she said that when created under district accounts and with district property, that the materials technically belong to the district and if I leave, the materials can not necessarily follow.  It definitely gave me pause.. but I fully admit I still create mostly in my school account, since it is part of my job to support district staff.  But it has me thinking... does this idea applies to the idea of student e-portfolios as well?  If students spend all this time creating something about their school learning, and using a school domain and...

While at ISTE last week, I heard this quite a few times - ‘they use Microsoft Office in business, so that’s what we should be using in schools’. On the airplane home, multiple people around me are working on their laptops, and most working in PowerPoint. After a few minutes of watching them, and thinking about what I heard at ISTE, here is my two cents.... I prefer Google products - which is obvious based on my Google certifications. But if tomorrow we switched to Office 365, would I be unable to do my job? Would I still be able to support teachers and demonstrate how to use technology in the classroom? The answer is yes. It doesn’t matter which is used - Microsoft Office or GSuite Apps - the skills are interchangeable. If we switched, I would still use Slides/PowerPoint to create my weekly Tech Tips newsletter. Students can still create fake Instagram posts or BookSnaps in Powerpoint, just like they do in Slides. Case in point - let’s say I teach a statistics class and my stu...